Miranda Lambert’s Next Single Shares Personal Pain

The song, co-written by Lambert and husband Blake Shelton, pays tribute to Shelton’s brother Richie who was 24 when he died in a car crash. Blake was only 14 at the time.

Lambert says as she and Shelton were dating, he slowly opened up about what had happened to his brother. She says with the closeness she and Blake share, it almost feels as if the experience of losing Richie happened to her, too. She sees the impact it has on the family and how it never goes away.

“It just kinda come to us,” she explained about the song in an interview for the release of her latest album Four The Record. “He was playing this melody and said ‘The weatherman said it’s gonna snow.’ I was like, ‘That’s kinda cool.’ And it just started becoming about that subject. I said ‘You went away’ and he said ‘How dare you?’ for the line. And we both just broke down crying. I’ve never cried writing a song before and I don’t know that I ever will again.”

Once the song was finished, Lambert wanted Shelton to record it. But she says he declined because he didn’t think he would be able to get through it in the studio or singing it every night on stage. Instead, he said he would be honored if she would record it.